I was fortunate to be one of the few in Northern Europe to view the solar eclipse on 11th August from a clear cloudless sky. Staying near Compiegne in France, close to the centre line of the eclipse I hoped for an excellent view, but like many in Europe, woke to find cloudy skies with only glimpses of the sun through less dense parts of the cloud. With just 40 minutes to go to totality it looked like I would see little, but over to the west an area of blue sky appeared, but it was clearly not going to reach me in time. So my family and I jumped into our car and raced off through the French countryside, chasing the gap in the clouds. Luckily we made it with just under 15 minutes to go - we found ourselves close to a small village called Avenchy on a minor road crossing some fields, together with a few other enterprising French people who like us had chased the eclipse. We watched in awe as we saw the diamond ring, the moon's shadow approaching rapidly from the west, a dog barking and then darkness and that amazing view of the corona, only visible at totality. The corona seemed very uniform, although two large prominences were visible either side of 6 o'clock on the sun's disk. The two minutes passed far too quickly, it seemed like a few seconds, then the moon's shadow was racing to the East, the diamond ring appeared and then the crescent sun and the whole process manifested in reverse. It was truly an amazing site. I took only a few pictures as I was determined not to spoil the visual experience. I used a conventional Kodak digital camera to take a few pictures, two of which appear below. I also took some video footage, which is a good record of the event, but like most conventional video cameras I was unable to vary the exposure and much of the recording is somewhat overexposed. However, I hope to get some captured frames on this site soon. For now I hope the pictures below give an impression of the event.

Click thumbnail for a larger image.